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State of Disunion: A 'radical' solution

Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, high priest of climate skepticism, advised Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, wrote leaders for the Yorkshire Post, was editor of the Catholic paper The Universe, managing editor of the Telegraph Sunday Magazine, assistant editor of Today, and consulting editor of the Evening Standard. He invented the million-selling "Eternity Puzzles," "Sudoku X" and a promising treatment for infections. See the Science & Public Policy Institute.

By the time you read this, Mr Obama will have delivered the State of the Union address. But he will not have dared to face the gravest question that all nations of the West now face. It is this. Taxpayers can no longer afford to carry the cost of those who do not contribute. Yet those on the take have ended up outnumbering and hence outvoting those on the make.

The Union is now in a state of disunion. On one side of the Great Divide, those who work for a living and pay their taxes. Most taxpayers vote Republican. On the other side, those who do not work for a living and pay little or no tax. Nearly all non-contributors vote “Democrat.”

Milton Friedman, the great economist from Chicago, the corrupt city that gave Mr Obama his leg-up to Congress and then to the White House, used to say that once the expenditures of government exceeded 25 percent of everything the nation produces each year, democracy must fail, because the takers would end up outnumbering the makers.

He has been proven right. The failure of democracy can be directly measured as the cumulative difference between what the makers make and the what makers and takers consume – in short, the federal debt. That debt, not only in the United States but in other Western nations, has now risen beyond all hope of repayment. Though the Constitution obliges Uncle Sam to honor his debts, eventual default is now inescapable. It is going to happen.

The former chairman of the Republican National Committee, in a recent interview, said the GOP had failed to gather around a clear policy that people can be persuaded to vote for.

The reason is that the GOP are terrified of the growing army of takers. They feel outnumbered, for the good and sufficient reason that they are outnumbered. And the ranks of the takers are swollen by the mass unemployment and mass immigration over which Mr. Obama cheerfully presides, for his party profits by both.

Nearly everyone who is unemployed votes “Democrat.” Nearly every immigrant, at least in the first generation, votes “Democrat.” Nearly every non-white American votes “Democrat.” The GOP know that so intellectually and financially bankrupt an administration should never have been re-elected – indeed, given the scale of electoral fraud practiced by the “Democrats,” he may not actually have been re-elected (always supposing that he had the constitutional right to hold the office of president in the first place).

Houston, we have a problem. America as we knew her and admired her is going down, sinking financially and politically under the tide of takers. For takers are also voters, and that is the problem. The taxpayees can vote themselves more and more and more of the taxpayers’ money.

Yet so little attention has been given to the death of democracy via the growing cost and reach of federal welfare programs that the word “taxpayees” has not existed until this moment. Google it and the search engine will assume you have made a spelling mistake. It will give you thousands of references to “taxpayers.”

The GOP can no longer ignore the state of disunion that exists because taxpayees now so greatly outnumber taxpayers. It will need a short-term strategy and a long-term strategy.

The short-term strategy is to confront the American people with the scale and intractability of the problem, and to recommend solutions with the aim of reducing the number and influence of taxpayees.

The takers need to be confronted, boldly but politely, more in sorrow than in anger, with the fact that the unbridled expansion of federal welfare cannot continue because the money has run out. Therefore, unless urgent steps are taken to cut the handouts substantially Uncle Sam will find himself in the bankruptcy court, and when that happens those taxpayees who would otherwise get something will very suddenly end up getting nothing.

First, the federal authorities need to know who is getting welfare benefits – everything from food stamps to Medicaid and Medicare. In the future, if you want a handout from Uncle Sam, you will need to prove to him who you are. If you are an illegal immigrant, sorry, but no more handouts. If you are a lawful immigrant, sorry, but no handouts in your first five years in the United States. Period. If you don’t like that, don’t come.

Very important: If you are claiming any handout, you are not entitled to vote. Taxpayers will have the right to vote, but taxpayees will not. That way, no one can vote himself a handout.

Also important: no minimum wage. That’s a recipe for creating unemployment, particularly during recessions. Instead, in return for asking taxpayees to give up their right to vote till they stop claiming handouts, give everyone a small minimum income, replacing tax reliefs for taxpayers and basic benefits for taxpayees. But any handout above that basic amount will deprive a taxpayee of his right to vote.

You will have heard nothing of this in the State of the Union address, of course. The man who promised you last year that there would be laws to manage immigration, take away your guns and make the weather behave (all three promises were dishonored) will make more promises to you this year. America cannot afford the cash to let him honor them.

Lest you think these proposals go too far, consider the alternative.

Mr. Obama’s office is already making noises about his ruling by decree if the people’s elected representatives will not let him do what he wants. For he is not merely part of the problem; he is ruthlessly expanding it and exploiting it by writing checks to takers and taxpayees that Uncle Sam can’t cash.

No foreign invader will bring down the United States. Its own debt will do that.